I Thought Eternal Meant 'Forever'
by BlackenedSunrise
Summary: Seventeen years have passed since Yuna and her guardians defeated Sin and fifteen since the events involving Vegnagun. She now lives quietly in Besaid with Tidus and their children Alesia and Caius. All of Spira thought Yuna's Calm would last forever, but now villages are reporting sightings of Sin. Somehow the Calm was broken and Spira is once again forced to live in fear of Sin.


Author's Note: This is my first fanfiction so if it doesn't seem great at first, give it a chance! I promise it'll get better. I've been thinking about writing this for a while and a friend of mine finally convinced me to do it. Also, translations of any Al Bhed used in the story will appear at the bottom of the chapter. I'd make you collect Al Bhed primers by reading my story, but I'm not that mean. Thank you to my beta PulsarDragon, you should go read his fanfics, they're pretty good.

Disclaimer: I don't own Final Fantasy X or any other Final Fantasy games, movies, etc. If I did, there'd be more Moogles everywhere.

Prologue

Dawn was breaking over Kilika, bright streaks of red and orange lighting the sky as the sun slowly crept over the horizon. Sounds of the village waking from its slumber could be heard as men walked to the docks to begin their long day of work loading and unloading trade ships. The local blitzball team was heading down to the water to begin practice, and shopkeepers were preparing to open their respective businesses. Some children were rubbing their eyes sleepily in the doorways of their homes before looking for others to play with. It was as peaceful as it had been since the beginning of the Eternal Calm.

Shortly after dawn, an airship soared through the sky above the peaceful settlement and came in for a landing at the small airship landing strip. A short and blonde, Al Bhed woman exited the ship, accompanied by three more Al Bhed. One of them was a tall, muscular man with a blonde Mohawk and blue tattoos covering his chest and arms, he was followed by a slight shorter man with lightly tanned skin and close cropped blonde hair and an unidentifiable figure in a gas mask and hazmat-like suit. The small group of Al Bhed locked up the airship and and began making their way to the main part of the village.  
>"This place sure has changed a lot. I don't remember it being this big when we came here hunting for that sphere," the blonde woman told them as they walked through the village's gate.<p>

"You're right Rikku. It sure is a lot different now, but fourteen years will do that to a place," the Al Bhed man with the short blonde hair agreed as they stopped to look around.

"_Ed'c hela du caa drec bmyla ryc kuddah pekkan_," the tattooed one replied with a nod as they resumed walking.

"You could atleast try to learn Spiran ya know! Ever since Yunie went back to Besaid you gave up on learning it!" Rikku scolded playfully, although the group understood the older man perfectly.

"Brother just doesn't want all the nice women in Kilika to understand him. It makes him more mysterious and girls like mysterious guys don't they?" the youngest member of the group teased, though his words were slightly muffled by the gas mask.

"More like he doesn't want them to know how incompetent he is with words, even in his own language," Rikku giggled in response.

Brother growled and picked up his pace, forcing the rest of the Al Bhed to match his stride, while searching for a place to get supplies for the ship.

Rikku resumed looking around curiously at the larger village when she noticed something off in the distance down by the water. Wanting a closer look, she raced to the end of the main road onto a large platform with a perfect view of the sea. The water was pulling away from the platform and seeming to collect itself into a large sphere several miles off shore. She watched entranced as the sphere kept getting larger and larger, when suddenly a powerful shock wave burst forth from the bubble. Rikku was thrown back by the force, landing heavily on the ground, but she was still able to see the massive wave racing towards town. Rikku sprung back onto her feet and ran back down the street, hoping to outrun the wave and yelling for all to hear to run. Seeing the wave about to hit shore, she dove into the nearest building and peered around the door frame.

She caught sight of the wave crushing the platform and sweeping through the rest of town, damaging or destroying everything in its path. The buildings nearest shore were completely submerged, the streets were now more rivers than roads, and she began seeing flotsam and bodies drifting in the water now. Waiting several minutes, the waters finally began to recede enough that Rikku felt it was safe enough to emerge from her refuge.

The damage was significant, many of the buildings in the town had smashed boards and windows from the shockwave, several doors had been completely blown off their hinges. Rikku could see that some of the village inhabitants were wading through waist-deep water to check half submerged shops and homes. Looking up, Rikku could see a large fin disappearing into the water out in the distance. She could hardly believe it, didn't want to believe it, but she was sure it had been there. It was impossible and yet it had happened.

"No… It can't be…" she mumbled as she began searching for Brother and the others others as she shook off her shock and began worrying about her fellow Al Bhed.

"_Rikku! Ujan rana!_" Brother called from the entrance to a nearby inn. She raced over and skidded to a stop, splashing water across the rest of the group.

"Buddy, you guys alright?" Rikku asked them, catching her breath.

"Yeah we're fine," Buddy replied, as Brother and the gas mask wearing Al Bhed nodded agreement.

Rikku took a breath to ask the other question that on her mind, but the youngest member of the group interjected by saying, "We saw the fin too."

"Shinra you don't think… I mean it's impossible isn't it? Yunie destroyed Yu Yevon," she stammered, trying to convince herself her words were true.

"Well someone created it before. If you could find the research you could theoretically recreate Sin, but it'd be hard enough just finding a readable copy of the research, let alone using it. It'd be an extremely complicated process," Shinra explained through his gas mask.

"But who would want to recreate Sin?! Everyone knows what that—that thing did to us in the past! What kind of person would be willing to bring it back?!" Rikku began screaming, rage twisting her normally cheerful features into a more hardened gaze as she questioned the youngest, but undoubtedly the smartest, member of the group.

"If I knew the answer I'd tell you, but unfortunately I don't.," Shinra replied calmly, "What I do know is that we should go to Besaid and tell Yuna. She might have an idea about what to do."

Rikku opened her mouth to speak, but paused forcing herself to calm down and think. She had helped Yuna and the others defeat Sin before, they could do it again right? She nodded slowly in agreement with Shinra's words and glanced around at her other companions. Buddy and Brother were nodding as well, nervous looks on their faces. She sighed and glanced up at the sky. She was sure that Yuna would be devastated by the news, but it would be best to inform her themselves than by Yuna learning through secondhand accounts.

"We should stay here for the rest of the day and and help where we can. We will leave for Besaid in the morning," Rikku finally told them as she tilted her gaze back down to them.

"_Nekrd_," Brother agreed and the others just nodded.

The group of Al Bhed all set off in total silence to find ways to assist the villagers. Talking just seemed pointless in the face of the destruction in front of them. The group of friends moved about with hard looks on their normally cheerful faces, helping here or there as they worked their way towards what was left of the harbor. Rikku never would have imagined she'd see the day that Sin would return, and yet, that day had arrived. They eventually reached a point where they couldn't progress any further on foot and hitched a ride with a passing boatman heading in that direction. She sighed once more as the group finally reached the harbor. . Several men in battered fishing boats were already trawling the water-logged area, searching for bodies or important pieces of equipment that might be salvageable. They searched for whoever appeared to be in charge and asked if there was anything they could do to help. Once their question was answered they set to work trying to repair the damaged village.

-Translations-

_Ed'c hela du caa drec bmyla ryc kuddah pekkan – _It's nice to see this place has gotten bigger.

_Rikku! Ujan rana!-_ Rikku! Over here!

_Nekrd – _Right.


End file.
